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Come help build sustainable housing

Active citizens from across the world are called to come together by Habitat for Humanity for the Desmond Tutu International Build Week from 2-6 March at Pelican Park.

In partnership with Power Construction, the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government Habitat for Humanity is responding and putting into action the request in the words of their patron Archbishop Desmond Tutu “Do your little bit of good where you are – it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world’.

Teams from as far afield as the USA and Ireland will be joining the build event together with 18 of ​Habitat’s International Board of Directors from across the 70 countries in which Habitat operates, as they have chosen Cape Town as their venue for their Board meeting this year.

Funding provided by the event helps provide for Habitat’s Social Facilitation Programme as part of Habitat’s community development work in the Pelican Park project.

Through their Social Facilitation Programme in partnership with the communities and galvanising the support of active citizens and other stakeholder partners, communities are empowered to take ownership of their communities through leadership, skills development and self-belief to become the champions of their own developments and their communities.

“Our five-year goal through our community development process is to meaningfully transform the lives of at least 100, 000 fellow South Africans living in communities across South Africa. Help us achieve this by joining our team build event, helping to build homes, communities and hope” said Adrienne Burke, Habitat’s Marketing Manager.

If you or your company are interested in getting involved contact Habitat’s Head Office on 021 657 5640.

Dedicated to long-term sustainability of low income houses

Habitat South Africa is dedicated to the long-term development and sustainability of South Africa’s low-income housing sector. Using holistic interventions that emphasise a partnership approach to achieve safe, decent and affordable shelter, Habitat South Africa is focused on strengthening the well-being and future of families. At the same time, we aim to build the capacity of communities to address, improve and self-manage overall living conditions and economic wellbeing for all residents.

This includes the markets in which communities are located and the systems, policies and regulations which govern them. By incorporating collaborative advocacy and partnership with the government on policy development and implementation, we are able to extend our impact to the broader South African housing sector – making the dream of thriving integrated human settlements a reality for low-income families.

Community building around common goals

Habitat South Africa’s programme model is based on community building – bringing together like interests to further common goals – as part of a holistic community development approach in which community members (project beneficiaries) play a leading role.

Project beneficiaries participate in structured homeowner education workshops that cover important issues including understanding the roles and responsibilities of owning their own home, becoming familiar with DIY home maintenance, knowledge and understanding the role of the local authority, and the major advantages of becoming a homeowner in terms of succession planning and financial security.

Building on community development & leadership

As homes are built in a project, Habitat incrementally builds upon the community development education workshops to plan for further capacity building with identified leadership. Working closely with the community to identify and build the capacity of local leaders helps ensure the long-term sustainability of each community.

Beneficiaries are capacitated through continuous engagement and their active participation supports the community leaders throughout the process.

The needs of the community are identified collaboratively through a process of social scoping that local leaders are capacitated in undertaking. Habitat Community Development Facilitators equip the community leaders who then gather information on the existing resources, needs and livelihood strategies of the community. A Community Action Plan is put together to identify the additional resources required to lead to sustainable change.

Habitat helps the community in mobilising these resources by leveraging its partnership network. For example, we may seek external partners to provide accredited skills development or enterprise development programmes for local aspirant entrepreneurs, marketable skills training programmes for income generation initiatives, food security expertise to support aspirant micro-farmers or gardeners, and so on. Boosting the skill levels within the community in turn provides a firmer foundation for future employment opportunities or start-ups for small businesses.

In addition, Habitat South Africa also engages volunteer teams from across the country and globally to work alongside the families. This not only helps build much-needed social cohesion in our society – especially across the cultural and economic divides that still exist in our country – but also brings the topic of shelter to the forefront for each individual volunteering their time and enables us to keep the spotlight on the issue of poverty housing.